Stop coworkers from encroaching on personal time

- Ever have a situation where a coworker needs your help after hours? It's during your personal time. You're trying to relax. You're spending time with family. And then they call or text you needing help. How do you deal with a situation like that, but still come across as a supportive coworker or leader? This can be a tricky balance because most of us want to be helpful and care about others, but at the time, we also need to have a personal life.

If we allow people to infringe on that from time to time, it can be very disruptive, not just for you, but for the other person. How can we live a balanced life yet help others be more productive? The first thing that we need to establish is a 1:1 meeting schedule. I covered this topic in depth in Leading Productive 1:1 Meetings here in the library. The basic idea is to have a pre-established recurring time in both of your calendars where you will meet to discuss all of your quick questions.

To establish a 1:1 meeting, think of one person who interrupts you most often or perhaps someone you interrupt frequently. Establish a weekly meeting to begin. I find that most people function well with one meeting per week at about 25 minutes per meeting. This gives you enough time to stay on top of things without there being too long a time period between these meetings. If you feel that weekly isn't frequent enough, perhaps try twice a week with a shorter length of time, maybe a 15-minute check-in twice per week.

The meeting helps you establish an outlet for after hours questions. So if someone comes to you with a question outside of work hours, you can remind them that the two of you have a 1:1 meeting established. Ask them, "Can this wait until the 1:1 meeting?" The first time you ask this question, it will likely be a shock to them. The second time you ask that question, "Can this wait until our recurring meeting?" They'll likely apologize and typically they won't ask again after that because they know what you're going to say.

But if they still have an after hours question and they say, "No, this can't wait until our 1:1 meeting," then ask them to set up an extra meeting into the calendar just for this one question and ask them to send you an invitation. Now, this requires that you have avoided overbooking your schedule. Many people keep their schedules far too busy and sometimes this can perpetuate other people asking you after hours because you haven't given them any room to talk to you.

A little bit of open space in your calendar helps you be prepared for true emergencies or extra meetings when they arise. Now finally, if you're in a situation where they say, "No, it can't wait until this 1:1 meeting "and no we can't schedule this in our calendar," then it's likely a true emergency and you're going to need to deal with it right now. After you deal with it though, make a note for yourself to assess why this emergency occurred and how to create a system to prevent it from occurring in the future.

However, I believe that if you follow this system I've outlined in this video, both you and the coworker will realize that what most people are interpreting as emergencies really aren't such. They only feel like emergencies because we don't have a clear understanding of when we're going to get a chance to deal with them. With a little preparation in advance, I believe you'll find these after hours interruptions become fewer and further between.